Alcatel’s Standalone VR Headset is Powered by a Samsung Exynos Chip

One of the surprise announcements at this year’s IFA in Berlin was Alcatel’s virtual reality headset, Vision.

The Alcatel Vision is one of the very first standalone mobile VR headsets to be announced and if it hits the market soon enough, it will be one of the few you can go out and buy.

At the launch event, Alcatel highlighted a few of the Vision’s specifications including its low latency (17 milliseconds) and a 120-degree field of view. Samsung has now confirmed to the world that the processor that powers the Alcatel Vision is its own Exynos 7420. This is the same chip that Samsung has been supplying Chinese device maker Meizu for use in its PRO 5 smartphone and which also powers Samsung’s 2015 high-end smartphones like the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy Note 5.

Processor aside, thanks to Samsung, we also get to know more specs of the VR headset. There are two 3.8-inch AMOLED screens, 3GB RAM, 32GB onboard storage since all that VR content has to be stored somewhere and a 3,000mAh battery.

It is not the first time that Alcatel is trying out its hand on mobile VR. The Idol 4 and 4S ship with a pair of VR goggles that also double up as the packaging. Unlike the standalone Vision, the goggles are just a VR medium as they are entirely reliant on the smartphones for both the content and the processing power to output the content on their screens. However, since Alcatel has dragged its feet when it comes to making the two devices available on the market in most countries, the Vision may just be the only Alcatel VR hardware worth getting excited about this year even though it is not Google Daydream-certified.

It doesn’t look like Alcatel had a lot of choices while opting to make the Vision in the first place since the brand is also keen on selling its own 360-degree cameras and obviously, it had to provide another easy way to access and consume the created content without any barriers getting in-between.

The use of the Exynos 7420 processor also brings to fore another question. Since Samsung has already stated that it is working on its own standalone VR headset (the Gear VR relies on supported Galaxy smartphone models in order to function), could this be the same chip that Samsung will use on its own VR headset?